Once in a while you come across a script that makes your life dramatically easier. Today that script was sIFR Lite.

Over the past few months we’ve been working on a client project that requires us to use a specific typeface for page headings on the website. Rather than doing standard -9999px image replacement techniques, which would have made our intern want to gouge out his eyes with an ice pick, we decided to give the sIFR replacement technique a try. sIFR 2.0 is a technique that came out in mid 2005 and has been used by a limited number of sites. Well, as cool as it is I ran into quite a few problems when first implementing it with our project. And while I got it to work I felt slightly dirty about the implementation. Luckily a couple days later I saw a post on twitter by Matt Crest about a new solution called sIFR Lite.

Today, I finally had the chance to replace the old method with the lite version and I have to say it is exceptionally well done. Dave over at AllCrunchy.com has done a phenomenal job with his implementation of the sIFR technique. Making it lighter, easier to use, easier to install, and easier to manage. In fact, it reduces the amount of work by about 5x and in my tests it seems to render better. Better aliasing and better container size detection. Check out the example I whipped up.

Here’s the javascript code required to call sifr-lite:

window.onload = function () {
	var din = new Font('din.swf', {tags:'h1'});
	din.replace('h1')
}

Two quick notes: First, I do find that without using the window.onload function that in Safari sometimes the text won’t pick up color. This is very minor and easy to fix.. obviously. Second, you will need to use the original sIFR to create the .swf files of your font’s. Simply use the .fla and .as files that come with that script to make your fonts, then call those fonts via sifr.lite.js. For those looking for an all in one option I’ve put it together in a zip file. Please recognize I take no credit for the sIFR script or the Lite implementation of it, I simply thought it would be nice to have an all in one package to make things work.

Update: After further testing it seems that this technique is not yet compatible with Flash Player 10 except in Internet Explorer. Hence, if you’re running Flash 10 you won’t see the replacement technique. I hope this gets fixed soon as a fix is already out for sIFR 2.

Update 2: From our comments Gyo over at (http://www.giordanopiazza.com) has released an updated and fixed up version of sIFR Lite. I plan to start using this again for our projects. Very cool!

Now that I have Twitter and Facebook hooked together I seem to be making more updates on a daily basis, and I’ve been using a variety of tools to help me better engage with the Twitterverse. Here are a few of the jewels which I’ve learned to love.

• Qwitter: Tracks which followers have decided to abandon ship and which Tweet pushed them over the edge.
• Twollow: Auto-follow Tweets which contain keywords which you are interested in. You can track up to 5 phrases. For me, I auto-follow those with words like “small business” “entrepreneur” and “interactive agency”. However, I would very much like a frequency setting to help qualify people who Tweet about these topics from those who make passing mention of a phrase.
• FB2Twitter: For those of you who want to keep the World of Facebook separate from Twitter, this is obviously not for you. For those who want to reduce your number of status update locations, this is a dream.
• Twist by Flaptor: A great application for tracking the trends on Twitter. It’s more of a pulse check for various terms, likely not something which is going to be useful on a daily basis.
• Greasemonkey Nested Reply Script: This is a beauty for viewing which replies are in context to which Tweets. You’ll need Greasmonkey and Firefox to make this work. One note however: the nesting is in reverse which feels a bit counter intuitive.
  

I hope you enjoy these nuggets of goodness as much as I do. They have made my Twitter experience very enjoyable.

Oh, and Happy New Year! See you on Twitter @gmorris

Today I posted this question to LinkedIN and I was floored by both the speed and the detail of the responses. Informally surveying the responses I’d say most are in favor of the HOME button call out in the main navigation.

Here’s a highlight of some of the responses.

• Sometimes clicking on the logo takes you home and sometimes it does not.
• I click on “home” links quite frequently, especially in bread crumbs.
• I personally don’t even look for a home button, though I do like breadcrumb navigation links.
• I got 4 blank stares from the very educated 30 to 50 year old normal web users in the room. “Clicking a site’s logo takes you to the homepage?” one of them asked me. Which was justification enough for me to keep the nav button.
• Maybe 20% of users are aware of the logo-as-home-link standard.
• On rare occasions I’ll use if it’s there.
• I don’t think everyone is aware that the logo goes to the site home and in any case one of the most frustrating things about many sites is that you have to *think* to navigate.

What to do?
Andy Bosselman said it best “look to the leaders”, so I did. I looked at usability leaders and well-known sites and the results were mixed.

Using It

AdaptivePath

Nielsen Norman Group

37Signals Basecamp

Adobe

There’s No Place for Home

Microsoft

Apple

Amazon

The Verdict
Clearly, there isn’t a standard that is widely accepted on the top-tier sites. In our case, for the last few years we really have restrained from using the HOME button unless the client specifically has requested it. Based on the responses and discussions within the office we’ve arrived at a decision. We’ll include the HOME option in the navigation as long as the navigation isn’t overcrowded. It just appears that the logo-clicking standard has a long way to go before it is widely accepted.

Back in August I had the pleasure off hearing Jason Fried of 37Signals discuss 37Signal’s philosophies and methods. The presentation essentially followed the same script & theme which you can see here.

For those unfamiliar with 37Signals’ software and design principals here are a few examples to give you a flavor of their thinking:

• Less is more.
• Meetings are useless.
• Working remotely and collaborating is better then being in an office and interrupting each other.
• Chunk large projects into smaller bits which can be completed quickly.
• Focus on speed rather then perfection.
• Don’t do specification, wireframing or usability studies. They are a waste of time.
• Personas are bullshit.
• Invest in what doesn’t change like speed and customer service.
• Roadmaps and planning are useless.
• Morale feeds off progress.

Now, I’m a big fan of 37Signals and what they have done; however it’s a mistake for interactive agencies, web designers and developers to wholeheartedly adopt 37Signals’ ways of working without establishing a strong reputation first. It is key to point out that 37Signals is a product development company, not an agency focused on developing marketing sites or building custom client applications. 37Signals builds for 37Signals!

I asked Jason, “Why don’t you do consulting work or client work any longer?” His response was “it isn’t profitable compared to product development.” I’m sure he is 100% correct. The 12 person team at 37Signals is raking in millions of dollars in revenue each year. By contrast client work is time consuming, labor intensive and involves lots of education between both sides of the project. We are a company of 9 people and we haven’t even crossed the million dollar revenue mark yet.

Jason’s presentation did address several audience questions about client work. Which can be summed up as follows:

• Select your client’s carefully. Not every client is a good match.
• Train your clients on how you work, rather then how they expect you to work.
• RFPs and scope-of-work project estimations should be avoided at all cost because the written description can be interpreted differently depending on the reader.

37Signals originally started as a web design company and then they morphed into a product development company because the product work was far more profitable. Therefore I have to be critical of how their recommendations apply to us interactive agencies. Their advice doesn’t come from success in the client services area!

The ONLY way a client is going to be willing to accept those 3 points is if they know your agency’s record, and they RESPECT your abilities above all other agencies. Let’s use an example. If Widget Corp is looking for an agency to redesign their aging ecommerce site, and two other equal agencies are willing to bend to the desires of Widget Corp’s RFP, then good luck getting that project.

There is something to be said about standing your ground and holding true to your principles however at the end of the day if you don’t have revenue, then you don’t have a business. I’m not interested in being a martyr for the cause.

I’ve always admired the work of IDEO. They are a company which solves problems for their clients in a very fluid and evolving manner. They have put themselves in a position of respect, they do amazing work and I’m pretty sure they are VERY profitable. Any web company doing client related work would be well served to study the success of IDEO while blending in the philosophies of 37Signal’s product development methodologies.

At Imulus we plan on doing things differently. We’ll be proof that a interactive agency can develop great products while doing extraordinary client work. We don’t believe the two are mutually exclusive. Our position is the our brand of doing great client work and great product development will put us in a position of respect. This position will allow us to negotiate using the 3 points above.

This is our position and what makes Imulus unique in the realm of interactive agencies.

Months ago I posted an article explaining my opinion on Apple as a company that I passionately love and resepct, but also one that at times hurts its base by making overbearing decisions that punish users and developers.

However, as I’ve said before, to Apple’s credit they do listen when there’s an uproar. And point in case is the decision by Apple to drop the iPhone developer NDA. Now, here at Imulus we haven’t done first hand iPhone application development. But as technology advocates, developers of online software, and supporters of Apple products, we like seeing Apple make the right decision. There is no question that removing the NDA will make applications instantly better. In a nutshell it will allow developers to: exchange code samples, publish tutorials and techniques, as well as publicly talk about bugs and problems. Now instead of forcing developers to reinvent the wheel with basic iPhone functionality they can work on implementing standards for complex functions.

Apple also made the decision to restrict iPhone app reviews to actual purchasers of the app. Up to this point tons of people have been critiquing applications without ever using them. Leading to reviews that sounded like: “the app looks okay but it’s too expensive so I’m giving it a low score.” This is ridiculous. And Apple has made the right decision in allowing only users of the app to actually critique it. Another win for developers and users.

So cheers Apple, thanks for your support in making the platform better, even if it did take longer than it should have. The outcome will be worth it. Now, if only you’d give away the iPod touch 2.0 software for free to previous owners.